Waste behaviour intelligence for councils
Councils are investing more in waste every year. Is each new dollar keeping as much out of landfill as the last?
Less waste at the source. More from every waste dollar. Progress you can prove.
Second Nature finds the levers across your whole waste system: services, event conditions, contracts and partners, not just the message. We trial what works, build it into how council operates, and track every tonne on one line of sight.
30 minutes. No pitch deck.
Who we help
Built for Queensland councils.
We work for local councils: your waste and resource recovery, events, parks and venues, and economic development teams. Wherever your community meets your waste system, in three settings.
Places
Where council controls the setting
Parks, foreshores, sporting grounds, facilities, precincts and destinations.
Explore places →The problem
Your programs are sophisticated. The pressure is outpacing them.
Councils already run serious waste services, education and campaigns. The question now is how to evolve them, because three pressures are converging.
1 · Demand
Waste is outgrowing capacity
Queensland’s waste grew 4.5% in 2024–25, against 2.3% population growth. Landfills are filling, and every tonne above your baseline carries the full State levy: $165 a tonne in the metropolitan zone by 2029–30.
Queensland Government data and levy schedule
2 · Spend
Spend is rising faster than results
Programs grow, but it’s hard to see which ones are moving tonnes. Each new tonne diverted can cost more than the last, while rates can only stretch so far.
3 · Progress
Progress is hard to prove
Your Waste Reduction and Recycling Plan needs targets, actions and measured progress, and the State now expects 70% less landfill in South East Queensland within a decade. Yet growth masks good work, and contractor data rarely lines up.
Less Landfill, More Recycling 2035
Calculator
Is your waste spend keeping pace?
Compare three years ago with today. See what each diverted tonne now costs, how far you are from your target, and what it would take to close the gap at today’s rates.
Three years ago
This year
Looking ahead
Waste growth is projected at your own rate over the last three years: a year.
Program spend per tonne diverted
was three years ago ()
Each extra tonne diverted cost
extra budget ÷ extra tonnes diverted
Gap to target in
a year in levy if landfilled
Budget to hit target at today’s rates
or at your recent cost per extra tonne
The way out isn’t more budget at the same return. It’s finding which programs and levers deliver the most tonnes per dollar.
Indicative only. “Program budget” is the spend you want to test, such as education, campaigns and behaviour programs. Diversion also depends on infrastructure and services, so cost per tonne shows spend intensity, not cause and effect. Budget projections assume diversion keeps costing what it costs today (average) or what your most recent gains cost (marginal). Tonnes above your levy baseline carry the full levy; check your scheduled rate. Not financial advice.
Why us
Most waste behaviour isn’t a knowledge problem.
Education is one of nine ways to change behaviour, and rarely the first that works. People act on what’s easy, what’s expected and what’s in front of them. So we look at three layers.
People
Can they do the right thing? Is it easy? Do they want to?
Programs
What you run to change it, from prompts and incentives to changes to the setting.
Policy
The services, event conditions, contracts and local laws that hold it in place.
Bin audits tell you what’s in the bin. Second Nature tells you why it got there, and who can change it.
We evolve what you already run.
Your programs are the starting point, not something to replace.
We add the human layer.
Observation and conversations on the ground, which data alone can’t give you.
We prove it in your numbers.
Tonnes, dollars and plan progress, tracked every quarter.
“So what are we getting for it?” How to answer the question every waste budget faces.
Approach
Diagnose. Prioritise. Make it second nature.
Delivered through the Holdfast Method™, across people, programs and policy.
01 · Diagnose
Build your Lever Map
On-the-ground observation at your sites and events, short conversations with residents, visitors and organisers, mystery visits, and your existing weighbridge, contractor and program data, mapped against the programs you already run.
You receive: your Lever Map. The programs you already run, mapped against what’s driving the behaviour and who holds each lever, ranked by likely impact, with a per-person baseline separating everyday load from visitor and event peaks.
02 · Prioritise
Set your Priority Levers
A short, costed list of the changes that will shift the most tonnes, usually adjustments to programs you already run, with owners, targets and measures linked to your Waste Reduction and Recycling Plan.
You receive: your Priority Levers, trialled on a site or event and ready for your team to act on, with support to build them into services, event conditions and contracts.
03 · Make it second nature
Track the shift
Re-measure against your baseline to confirm the behaviour has changed, not just the tonnage, then compare sites, events and suburbs over time.
You receive: your Ideas to Impact Map, a results review and an optional annual benchmark.
Prove it at one site. Then roll it out.
Your own field staff are trained to run behaviour observations at each site and event every quarter. Results feed your Ideas to Impact Map and leaderboard, comparing every site against its own starting point, so the cost per site falls as you grow.
See the full approach →Case studies
Where the method has been applied.
Events
Queensland Event Waste Pilot
A State agency responsible for environment, waste, resource recovery and the circular economy, with a major Queensland council
the biggest levers sat with councils, container recovery, suppliers and funders, not the organisers being asked to change. Organics made up 512g of every kilogram of event general waste.
Places
Queensland’s major venues authority
State venues across metropolitan and regional Queensland
comparable, recurring data for Board reporting, and a prioritised set of initiatives.
Places and people
International parklands and reserves
Discussion paper for an international destination authority, 2025
a pathway from clean-up to prevention, the same shift councils face at beaches, reserves and event sites.
Engage
Start free. Prove it small. Keep it going.
Tools tested in real pilots with State agencies, venues and councils. Your team runs them; we keep them current and benchmarked.
Free
Start here
Waste spend calculator. Test whether your spend is keeping pace with your tonnes and targets.
Your waste spend snapshot. A one-page summary of your calculator results, ready to take to your executive or council.
Try the calculatorPilot
The Tipping Point pilot
One site, precinct or event, over 4 to 8 weeks. Prove it small before you scale it.
Your baseline. Everyday load versus visitor and event peaks, per person.
Your Lever Map. What drives the behaviour, and who holds each lever.
Your Priority Levers. The changes with the best return, trialled and measured.
From $22,000
Ask about a pilot placeAnnual licence tools
Improve and sustain
From $2,000 a year · each tool priced individually
Ideas to Impact Map. Your quarterly decision tool: every idea, every initiative and its impact in tonnes and dollars.
Leaderboard and benchmarking. Site to site, event to event and region to region.
Field observation kit. Training and tools for your own staff to run quarterly behaviour observations at sites and events.
Organiser champion kit. Onboarding, guidance and a results card after every event.
Local supplier list. Sustainable suppliers organisers can actually find.
ResponsibleSponsor framework. Sponsorship conditions and impact reporting that reward results.
Event sustainability guide and ISO 20121 pathway. Practical guidance and upskilling for organisers and suppliers, ahead of Brisbane 2032.
Talk to us about licensing →Team
People who know how councils work.
Stefanie Wilson
CEO · Waste Economics & Behaviour Strategy
The economics and strategy of waste and resource recovery, the circular economy and sustainability. Almost 25 years in and around councils, including regional and remote communities. Led Queensland’s first event sustainability pilot (200,000+ attendees) and directed water, waste and energy reporting across major venues. Former Chair of Go Circular, a circular economy not-for-profit, and Australian guest observer at the 2026 ISO/TC 354 events sustainability committee. Invited speaker to Queensland Parliament and UN COP29. 500+ stakeholder engagements to the IAP2 standard.
Stephanie Lebeau
Sustainability and operations
Sustainability, waste and environmental operations. Sustainability Lead for the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships Sydney 2025 and Sustainability Manager for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022. Former Corporate Sustainability Manager at SUEZ Australia and New Zealand, and climate change adviser to AusTriathlon and Water Polo Australia.
Keiran Travers
Waste and resource recovery
More than two decades helping councils and operators deliver waste, resource recovery and circular economy projects: procuring waste and recycling services, securing funding and approvals for infrastructure from organics collection to landfill upgrades, and advising councils on the Queensland waste levy. Former Project Development Manager at Veolia. MBA (University of Queensland) and Master of Environmental Management (Griffith University).
FAQs
Questions councils ask us
We already run strong waste programs. Why would we need this?
That’s where we start. We don’t replace your programs or your team. We map what you already run, show which programs are landing, and find where a small adjustment, or a different lever, will lift results.
How does it work?
Our method is the Holdfast Method™: change that holds. It’s built on international best practice in behavioural science, one peer-reviewed model that brings together 19 established models of behaviour change, adapted by Luminair Systems for local government. It works across three layers:
People. Can they do the right thing? Is it easy? Do they want to?
Programs. What you run to change it, from education and prompts to incentives, enforcement and changes to the setting.
Policy. The services, event conditions, contracts and local laws that hold the change in place.
Most councils invest heavily in programs. The biggest gains usually come from lining up all three.
How do we engage you?
Simply. Luminair Systems is on the Local Buy supplier panel, a pre-qualified arrangement Queensland councils can use. Our pilot-first approach also reflects the Queensland Procurement Policy 2026’s support for local small businesses, trials and pilots. If your council keeps an approved supplier list, we may already be on it. Your procurement team can confirm the right pathway for your thresholds.
What does it cost?
A Tipping Point pilot on one site, precinct or event starts from $22,000; a full diagnostic from $38,000; annual licences for our tools from $2,000 a year. Each tool is priced individually, so talk to us about the ones you need.
Book an intro call
Tell us what you’re seeing.
30 minutes on the problem you want solved and what you already have in place. No pitch deck.
Welcome@secondnaturewaste.com.au
Office 0482 852 435
Second Nature
WASTE BEHAVIOUR INTELLIGENCE FOR COUNCILS
Waste spend snapshot
Prepared
| Your inputs | Three years ago | This year |
|---|---|---|
| Waste generated | ||
| Sent to landfill | ||
| Program budget |
Looking ahead: % diversion target in , levy at $ a tonne, waste growth of a year (your three-year rate).
| Results | Value |
|---|---|
| Program spend per tonne diverted, three years ago | |
| Program spend per tonne diverted, this year | () |
| Cost of each extra tonne diverted | |
| Gap to target in | |
| Levy on the gap if landfilled | a year |
| Budget to hit target at today’s average cost | |
| Budget to hit target at your recent cost per extra tonne |
What this means
The way out isn’t more budget at the same return. It’s finding which programs and levers deliver the most tonnes per dollar. A Tipping Point pilot tests that on one site, precinct or event, from $22,000.
Talk to us: Welcome@secondnaturewaste.com.au · 0482 852 435 · secondnaturewaste.com.au
Indicative only and not financial advice. Program budget is the spend you chose to test; diversion also depends on infrastructure and services, so cost per tonne shows spend intensity, not cause and effect. Budget projections assume diversion keeps costing what it costs today (average) or what your most recent gains cost (marginal). Check your scheduled levy rate.
© 2026 Luminair Systems Pty Ltd. Second Nature and this snapshot format are the intellectual property of Luminair Systems Pty Ltd and must not be reproduced or adapted without prior written permission.